Ukrainian army officials today insisted there was no deal in place for the Russian aid convoy which departed Moscow, and that they will block it from entering Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian officials insisted any aid deliveries had to be done through the Red Cross, and that the aid would have to be transferred to Red Cross vehicles before entering Ukraine, which despite all the complaining is exactly what Russia already said they were planning to do.
The Russian convoy is expected to arrive at the border in two days, and will offload its massive cargo of humanitarian aid to the Red Cross. The convoy will then be accompanied by OSCE representatives during the brief trip from the border to Luhansk.
The lag between the convoy leaving Moscow and reaching the border will hopefully give the Red Cross more time to sort things out with the Ukrainian military, though at the same time it means Ukraine will likely continue to treat the shipment as some sort of military incursion, despite Russia promising not to accompany it with any armed escorts.
Ukraine army needs to look at itself as a mercenaries and not a people army, by killing the Ukrainian people they have become part of Ukraine Neo fascism and Neo fascism is part of USG plot against the Ukrainian people, USG is the enemy of the people in Eastern Europe, Rand Corporation and Berzinski are the one who wants for eastern Ukraine to be cleaned from Ukrainian/Russian speaking people.
Sure Ukraine is worried. They've seen in Iraq how the USG sends in humanitarian aid.
Perhaps the threat of bringing UN -Hague charges against the PUPPET KIEV GOVERNMENT for creating this" HUMANITARIAN" DISASTER will calm them down..
The problem is that Putin swore high and holy that he wouldn't annex Crimea. He annexed Crimea. Thus, his word is worthless and the belief that this aid convoy, about which the Red Cross claims to know nothing, is a trojan horse is perfectly reasonable. Suspicions are inevitably fuelled by the extraordinary way in which the supposed aid is being delivered: a convoy of trucks rolling slowly south from Moscow. If Putin really wanted to send aid to civilians in Ukraine, he would rush it south by military aircraft (or chartered civilian aircraft) to bases near the Ukrainian border, from whenc the Red Cross could distribute it. That's the way humanitarian aid is normally made available. If he had done that, the aid in the trucks would already be in the hands of the civilians he claims he is trying to aid. The whole thing looks like a scam for domestic Russian consumption. People see these trucks driving through their towns and they praise Putin for aiding the Russian colonists, failing to notice that he is actually about to capitulate. Probably, when the trucks reach the Ukrainina border, such part of their contents as hasn't spoiled during the unnecessarily long journey will be offloaded onto Red Cross vehicles and driven into Ukraine by Red Cross personnel. By playing cheap politics with humanitarian aid, Putin has simply shot himself in the foot (yet again!). No Soviet leader ever did anything so stupid!
Could you supply a link to Putin swearing ' high and holy that he wouldn't annex Crimea.'
I seem to have missed it.
I only saw the Crimean people voting overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia as happened with East and west Germany.
Michael is making things up as he writes.
Go over to rt.com and you see the same people posting hundreds and hundreds of messages detecting the Russian Devil in anything that happens, while ignoring any facts, rationality or adherence to what is knowable. One would think this hasbara of the west were being written by boiler room operators in Virigina. Well, this is 2014, so it could well be chatbots and upgraded racters.
"If Putin really wanted to send aid to civilians in Ukraine, he would rush it south by military aircraft (or chartered civilian aircraft) to bases near the Ukrainian border, from whenc the Red Cross could distribute it.That's the way humanitarian aid is normally made available in my imagination."
There, fixed that for ya.
The last time humanitarian aid was "normally made available" by military aircraft was the Berlin Airlift.
A chronic lier will not believe any truth easily. That's why Ukraine "chocolate king" one day makes a deal with Putin and Red Cross about delivery of humanitarian help from Russia and next day is pushed by a World Lier No. 1 to rescind it as disguised military or economic invasion. This is, I personally think, Russia's gambit – they know US government and US media will SUSPECT Putin is just the same as they are. Putin knows that ordinary people of Luhansk and eastern Ukraine need help. He sends out the trucks full of real help and knows that it will be suspected and rejected by West and their puppets in Kiev. It is a clever man. Every truck will be unloaded and then again loaded on Ukrainian trucks and NO military equipment and no Russian's small green men will be found. Putin WINS – hands down! US government will stand naked in front of whole world. It is so easy!
But what's the quality of his chocolate?
I'm willing to bet that none, no, absolutely none of the aid will ever make it to the needy in Luhansk or anywhere else in the eastern part of Ukraine – it will be hijacked – or stored in a warehouse – and then…disappeared, like the trillions of $$$$ the US spent on it's adventures in the ME.
As usual only USA and Europ have the privilegde and the right to organize humanitarian aid.How Russia dare to do that ! The problem is if Kiev accept the idea of aid they accept to say that there is an humanitarian catastrophe there.The Kiev army used always the same technic : destroy of supply of wather,than non stop bombing.
I do not know what will happen when the winter will come.Nothing will be repaired or fixed.The ukrainian side have system who can scan the russian trucks.So no arms will reach the separatists.Provocations like bombing the convoy by Kiev army are not excluded.
Another brilliant political move by Putin- whilst the US loudly proclaims it is providing 'humanitarian aid' to the Yazidis (who aren't that bad off and who don't need rescuing) in the form of bombing ISIS and providing weapons to the Kurds, Russia is seen by the world as quietly providing real humanitarian aid in the form of food, clothing, and the necessities. What actually happens to the convoy materials, for political purposes, is irrelevant- as long as Russia gets the stuff to the border and hands it off to the Red Cross, whatever happens to it after that they can blame on the Ukrainians.